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The 16 Best True Crime Books of All Time

By YPB Team

Genre-defining reportage, decades-long obsessions and books that quietly reshaped how these stories get told. Which will win?

  1. In Cold Blood — ranked #11
    In Cold Blood
    Truman Capote's 1966 'nonfiction novel' about a Kansas farm family's murder, which defined the genre.
    1000pts
  2. The Executioner's Song — ranked #22
    The Executioner's Song
    Norman Mailer's Pulitzer-winning 1979 account of Gary Gilmore and capital punishment in America.
    882pts
  3. Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets — ranked #33
    Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
    David Simon's 1991 year embedded with Baltimore detectives, the basis for the TV series.
    832pts
  4. The Stranger Beside Me — ranked #44
    The Stranger Beside Me
    Ann Rule's 1980 memoir of realizing her colleague and friend was a serial killer.
    680pts
  5. Helter Skelter — ranked #55
    Helter Skelter
    Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's 1974 account of the Manson Family case, the best-selling true crime book ever.
    529pts
  6. Fatal Vision — ranked #66
    Fatal Vision
    Joe McGinniss's 1983 book on the Jeffrey MacDonald case, famous for the author's own entanglement.
    529pts
  7. Columbine — ranked #77
    Columbine
    Dave Cullen's 2009 reporting that dismantled a decade of myths about the school shooting.
    433pts
  8. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil — ranked #88
    Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
    John Berendt's 1994 portrait of Savannah society surrounding a notorious shooting trial.
    433pts
  9. Under the Banner of Heaven — ranked #99
    Under the Banner of Heaven
    Jon Krakauer's 2003 examination of a killing rooted in fundamentalist Mormon extremism.
    433pts
  10. Killers of the Flower Moon — ranked #1010
    Killers of the Flower Moon
    David Grann's 2017 investigation into the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI.
    317pts
  11. Say Nothing — ranked #1111
    Say Nothing
    Patrick Radden Keefe's 2019 narrative of a disappearance during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
    317pts
  12. The Devil in the White City — ranked #1212
    The Devil in the White City
    Erik Larson's 2003 dual history of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and a killer who stalked it.
    317pts
  13. The Onion Field — ranked #1313
    The Onion Field
    Joseph Wambaugh's 1973 account of a police officer's abduction and its long aftermath.
    317pts
  14. Lost Girls — ranked #1414
    Lost Girls
    Robert Kolker's 2013 book centering the lives of the women behind the Long Island murders.
    317pts
  15. I'll Be Gone in the Dark — ranked #1515
    I'll Be Gone in the Dark
    Michelle McNamara's 2018 obsessive hunt for the Golden State Killer, published posthumously.
    176pts
  16. Mindhunter — ranked #1616
    Mindhunter
    John Douglas's 1995 memoir of building the FBI's criminal profiling unit.
    176pts

#books76#nonfiction2#true crime1

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